Preview: England v Australia, 2nd ODI

With the opening match of the five game series at Headingley, Leeds being rained out without a ball being bowled, the stage now shifts to Old Trafford, Manchester for the 2nd ODI as Australia will be hoping to put their Ashes disappointment behind them and start afresh. The visitors will look to extend the good form they showed in the opening T20I as well as the one-off ODI against Scotland, when they face a depleted England side in the remaining four matches. Meanwhile, the hosts, who came back well to square the T20I series before winning the one-off game against Ireland, will be keen to add more to their wins tally.

England: With Alastair Cook and Ian Bell rested from the limited-overs squad, the onus is on the experienced stars like Jonathan Trott and Kevin Pietersen to steer the batting order. Michael Carberry, who did not quite live up to his potential in the match against Ireland, will get another opportunity to showcase his prowess with the bat and he will have a crucial role to play at the top of the order. It remains to be seen who gets to open with Carberry - England can either persist with Luke Wright at the opening position or they have an option of playing Joe Root up the order. In the middle order, skipper Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara, who both scored unbeaten hundreds to see England through against the Irish, will remain key figures. Jos Buttler, the wicket-keeper for the hosts, will lend some stability to the middle order.

In the bowling department, Boyd Rankin, who impressed in his debut game for England with a four-wicket haul, will share the new-ball duties with Steven Finn. In the absence of James Anderson and Stuart Broad, these two will have to shoulder most of the responsibilities in the pace department along with Ben Stokes while the part-time seam options of Bopara and Wright will also be handy for the hosts. With Graeme Swann also missing from the line-up, James Tredwell will have to man the spin department while Carberry's part-time off-spin is also an option for England.

Australia: Australia's top order will depend a lot on Aaron Finch, who has been in superb form with a bat, having scored a scintillating hundred in the opening T20 match and following it up with a quick-fire ton against Scotland. Finch's opening partner Shaun Marsh too has been doing well, and will be looking to extend his good form after a fine 151 against the Scottish. With Shane Watson slated to bat at number three, Michael Clarke to follow and George Bailey, Adam Voges and Matthew Wade making up the middle order, Australia's batting unit looks a lot more settled as compared to the Ashes one. All captain Clarke will be hoping for is that they perform consistently and show some discipline and application that was lacking in the five-Test series.

Australia's front-line seamers for the ODIs are likely to be Mitchell Johnson, Clint McKay and James Faulkner while the visitors also have the option of Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Coulter-Nile along with the all-round abilities of Watson. Fawad Ahmed, who came up with a good showing in the 2nd T20I, will have an important role to perform as a spinner and Glenn Maxwell can provide him good support in case Australia decide to include the all-rounder. Adam Voges can also be handy with his left-arm spin.

Head to head: In 12 bilateral ODI series between Australia and England in England since 1972, the visitors have emerged victors in 5 series while the hosts ended up winning seven of them. The last time these two sides faced off in England was in 2012 when the hosts defeated the Aussies 4-0 in a 5-match series.

Upcoming milestones:

168: The number of runs Shane Watson requires to become the the 14th Australian player with 5000 or more runs in ODI cricket.

5: The number of of wickets Mitchell Johnson needs to take to become the fifth Australian with 200 or more wickets in One-Dayers.

6: The number of catches Michael Clarke requires to become the 6th Australian player with 100 or more catches in ODIs.

Quotes:

Carbs is a very experienced cricketer. He will pick himself up, re-evaluate where he is at and we will encourage him to play with the freedom he does at Hampshire. We have very strong belief in him as an opening batsman: England captain Eoin Morgan backs Michael Carberry to come good.

It's about this team, where we're at and trying to move forward and improve in the one-day format and get back to being number one in the world. That's why it's important we win this series: Michael Clarke is hoping for an improved performance from the Aussies in the ODIs.